declared that this indifference was the fault of the authorities of the Museum, and that it was their duty to further the Bohemian literature and language. When the elder Count Sternberg replied that it was too late to raise the Bohemian nation from the dead, the young patriot became angry, and abandoning the defensive attitude began to attack his opponents. He warmly reproached Dobrovský for writing in German only, and ended with the fiery words: ‘If we all act thus, then indeed our nation must perish through intellectual famine. As for me, even if I was a gipsy by birth and the last descendant of that race, I should consider it as my duty to strive with all my might that honoured records of my race should be preserved to the history of humanity.’ It is very much to the credit of the older patriots that they agreed with the remarks of Palacký, whose hopes, as need hardly now be mentioned, have since been justified by time. It was resolved that a literary and scientific journal, entitled the Journal of the Bohemian Museum[1], should be published both in Bohemian and in German. The Bohemian edition has been continued up to the present day, and may still be considered the foremost literary periodical of Bohemia. The German edition, on the other hand, was abandoned after a few years. Palacký became the first editor, and some of his first historical studies appeared in the journal. About the same time he received the appointment of archivist to Count Sternberg, an appointment that not only slightly added to his modest income, but also gave him a recognized social position at Prague—no unimportant matter at a time when Metternich’s omnipresent police viewed all
- ↑ Časopis Českého Musea.
